Two Virtual Reality Projects Built With Adobe Captivate 2019

I’ve writtenpreviously about how intrigued I was by the newest version of Adobe Captivate, which now supports 360 images and facilitates creation of interactive virtual reality learning experiences, if they’re a bit limited yet in functionality.

I’ve also written about my goal of “Showing My Work” in creating a wilderness survival virtual reality game using Captivate, but alas, life being life I haven’t made much progress on that, though this Mt. Whitney VR tour is a step in that direction.

But I wanted to share a couple of projects that I created using Adobe Captivate 2019 that I think are OK examples of what’s possible with the technology.

First: I want to report on a few issues. Adobe Captivate 2019 is still buggy (shocking!). I originally built the Pollak Library tour with two more slides, but for some reason they showed up as blank, black slides in the published version. So, I deleted them, and just put a silly note in the tour itself that declares the next area “closed due to haunting.” I think I’m funny.

I built the Mt. Whitney VR tour using a blank project. I wanted the flat slide to build out the title and the map. If I used the Virtual Reality project type I would’ve been limited to 360 slides. Also, I think Captivate’s VR project output is kind of crappy. It’s difficult to navigate, there’s a weird menu that pops up, the target is hard to use…

For right now, I’ll stick to adding VR elements to blank and responsive projects. Their fully VR projects are still a work in progress.

So, without further ado, here are two examples of virtual reality projects built with Adobe Captivate 2019.

Mt. Whitney Trail Virtual Reality Walk-Through

Ever wanted to hike to the summit of the tallest mountain in the continental United States? At a peak elevation of 14,505 feet, and more than 8,000 feet of elevation gain to get there over 11 miles (22 miles round-trip!), this hike is not for the faint of heart. I had recently purchased a $100 Insta360 Air camera that worked with my Android, and I decided to take it along on my long-planned day hike of Mt. Whitney to capture some 360 images and try out Captivate’s new VR features.

Anyhoo. Feel like you’re there with this version meant for the desktop or tablet:

This version is a downsized version built for phones:

I used an Insta360 Air camera with my Android phone, and I edited the 360 images in Photoshop to remove myself from the images.

Campus Library Virtual Reality Tour

I created this project after I got my hands on a Yi 360 camera. This camera is a standalone 360 camera, and it is a vast improvement over the InstaAir camera. It ran about $400, but it was purchased by my department and I just borrowed it.

This tour was created with Captivate’s Virtual Reality project type. It will work on a desktop or your phone. If you open it on your phone, you’ll have the option to “Enter VR,” which means that you can load the tour, pop this into a pair of VR goggles, and get the full VR experience. You’ll be able to move through the tour by moving your head alone.